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On December 3, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) vacated and remanded FERC’s 2011 order regarding certain aspects of the Joint Operating Agreement (“JOA”) between the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) and the Southwest Power Pool (“SPP”).  The case involves the impact on SPP of integrating Entergy Arkansas into MISO.

On December 2, 2013, FERC filed two petitions in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts asking the court to affirm FERC’s assessment of civil penalties against Lincoln Paper and Tissue, LLC (“Lincoln”), Competitive Energy Services, LLC (“CES”), and Richard Silkman for allegedly manipulating the New England demand response market.

On November 15, 2013, FERC issued Order No. 787, authorizing interstate natural gas pipelines and electric transmission operators to voluntarily share non-public, operational information with each other to promote grid reliability and operational planning.  In doing so, FERC stated that “[w]ith the increasing reliance on natural gas as a fuel for electric generation, ensuring robust communications between transmission operators in the electric and natural gas industries will help both systems operate reliably and effectively.”

On Tuesday, November 19, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) held that the Secretary of Energy (“Secretary”) again failed to perform a valid evaluation of annual fees collected from generators for disposal of nuclear waste under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act (the “Act”).  The D.C. Circuit ordered the Secretary to suspend collection of the fees until such time as it resumes its work with regards to the creation of the Yucca Mountain storage project, as set out in the Act, or until Congress chooses to enact an alternative waste management plan.

On November 21, 2013, FERC approved, with modifications, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) Version 5 Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) Reliability Standards, CIP-002-5 through CIP-011-1 (see April 22, 2013 edition of the WER).  In addition to approving the Version 5 CIP Reliability Standards, FERC also approved 19 new or revised definitions for inclusion in the Glossary of Terms used in NERC Reliability Standards.

On October 21, 2013, FERC and the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) jointly executed a Memorandum of Understanding (the “Memorandum”), setting out a process for inter-agency cooperation in the dissemination of certain information.  The Memorandum is non-binding and executed for the purpose of formalizing the agencies’ shared intent.  FERC and CARB anticipate sharing information on general energy issues of mutual interest as they relate to the California and Western energy markets.

On October 28, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (“Court”) issued its Memorandum Opinion in the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Coal Combustion Residue (“CCR”) litigation.  Under the Memorandum Opinion, the Court is directing EPA to provide a proposed schedule near the end of December for completing its CCR rulemaking.